Boomerang
Specific Type: Boomerang
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North of the border, in Montreal, lies Canada's second largest theme park, La Ronde, owned and operated by Six Flags Inc. The park sits on the site of the 1976 Worlds Fair, and still contains some of the original attractions, including the Arrow mini-mine train,Marche du Mille-pattes, but the park was never really a coaster fanatic's paradise. In 1981, they added Super Manege, a Vekoma corkscrew with bayerncurve model. Local thrill seekers were pleased but not satisfied. Then in 1984, the park would erect a ride that would become part of a revolution in the coaster industry.
That year, La Ronde opened the world's third Vekoma Boomerang, the first in North America, appropriately dubbed, Boomerang. Morey's Pier followed later that year with the first model of this ride in the states under the name of Sea Serpent. Since then, over 40 identical clones have sprung up around the globe. The secret to the boomerang's success is the combination of high thrill with low price. Vekoma managed to cram six inversions (three forward and three in reverse) into a footprint smaller than some flat rides. As with the other Boomerang's clones, La Ronde's copy operates with a single train due to its incomplete circuit. Each train consists of seven cars with two rows each, and two people per row, allowing for a maximum ride capacity of twenty-eight riders per train. Boomerang takes one minute and forty-eight seconds to complete a full circuit. During this circuit, it reaches a maximum speed of forty-seven miles an hour and reaches a top height of roughly 116 feet. The length of its coiled track is 935 feet and riders encounter a maximum of 5.2 G-forces throughout their forwards and backwards journey on Boomerang. Future riders can find this thriller by venturing right upon coming in the park's main entrance gates. The teal serpentine track calls like a siren to those walking towards the queue. Once Boomerang's one and only train is loaded up, riders are hoisted backwards up the first tower. They are brought up the tower until the tail of the train is just feet from the edge of the lift before the train is released and riders are now officially rushing through the course. Maximum speed is encountered as the train pulls out and flies through the loading station. Riders are then rushed straight into the two inversion element known as a cobra roll, and this is where the ride's peak of 5.2 G's are encountered. Following the cobra roll is a single vertical loop where riders still have pretty good speed going through this and a decent amount of G's are pulled as well. Once the loop is experienced, half of the ride is over and riders then prepare themselves to experience what they just experienced, only this time in a backwards motion. Once the train is brought up to the top of the second lift, it is released and coils its way through its same course in reverse. Once this is done, the train makes its way about half way back up the original lift hill, and then is slowly lowered back down into the station, where disembarking riders can choose to re-ride or challenge some of the parks other thrills, such as the dual tracked woody, Le Monstre, or the B&M mega coaster , Goliath. |
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